One Way Or Another
by lahniwritesthings
Summary: When Santana wakes up the morning in Quinn's hotel room, the night after the wedding, she has every intention of this just being a hook up for them both. But later on she starts to wonder whether it was just a crazy, spontaneous night between them, or whether it was something much more than that. Canon until 4x14 'I Do'. Rated M.
1. The Next Morning

**A/N: Hi guys :) This is my first ever attempt at writing a fic, so I hope you enjoy it! If you have any comments, or ways you think I could improve my writing, please write it in the reviews or something. This chapter is called 'In The Morning', after the song by Razorlight, which has been stuck in my head since I wrote this. The link is here: watch?v=GJYRaTTgdpA**

February 15th, the morning after the wedding. Santana stirred in her sleep, her face was buried half into the pillow as she slightly opened her eye and squinted at the alarm clock on the nightstand. "What the fuck, just, fucking ugh," she groaned, and turned her body to face the other way, "No fucking way." The sun was slowly starting to peer through the curtains; it was 6:27am and she knew that even thinking about waking up at that time would cause her to hurl uncontrollably, mainly due to the amount of alcohol she had consumed at the free bar. Santana tossed and turned for a while longer before falling back asleep again.

"_So what happens next?" Quinn asks, staring directly at her with a smug look plastered on her face. Her hair was all messed up, the covers hugging her body. _

"_Well, you could walk out first," a voice appeared out of nowhere, "Or we could make it a two time thing?" The tension in the room was unbearable, and Quinn put the bottle of water back onto the side table before removing the covers, revealing her naked skin._

The mysterious voice had a hint of flirtatiousness to it, one that Santana knew all too well. Her own. The outlook of the view in her dream was fixated on Quinn, and she couldn't tell if it was from a third person perspective or not, but either way, the dream was just about to get good. She sighed quietly and subconsciously started to move her hand underneath her stomach, until she reached the wetness between her legs.

_Quinn leaned forward and crawled towards her until their lips met in a short embrace, lasting only a few seconds. She could feel every touch, every breath and every moan that escaped the girl's mouth as their lips collided together and hands roamed each other's bodies. Santana could feel fingertips gliding their way down her front as Quinn climbed on top of her, deepening the kiss and pressing her warm skin against her own. "I need you to fuck me," a weak moan escaped Quinn's mouth as Santana kissed around her neck, making sure to leave a few marks in her wake. _

"_Well someone's changed their tune from the first time, haven't they?" She smirked as her hands grabbed the girl's legs and spread them further apart above her, "You're so impatient." Her right hand slid up towards Quinn's ass and squeezed it roughly as her other snaked between her legs and started gently rubbing her clit. Soft moans from Quinn travelled into Santana's mouth as she drew circles around it with her two fingers, before pushing them inside of her quickly, causing Quinn to lower her head onto Santana's shoulder. The heat of the hotel room was unbearable before they had even began, and now they were adding to it, sweat started coating their bodies as they got more intimate and heated. _

"_Keep going, Santana… Fuck," Quinn breathed onto her neck. Santana quickened the pace as she lowered herself further down the bed, kissing down her chest, taking a few seconds to admire how incredibly hot this entire scenario was. She could feel herself getting wetter as each second went on, and the knot in her stomach was becoming unbearable, so with her free hand she pushed herself further down the bed until her face was just below Quinn's center. She could almost taste it, the sweet smell of Quinn's core filled her nose and she needed to taste her so bad. Her face moved closer and closer towards it._

A ear-piercingly loud car siren blasted through the streets and Santana woke up completely drenched in sweat, panting heavily as she pushed the covers off of her. Her head turned to the clock again. 10:39. She reached up to her neck and rubbed it, feeling faint marks on her neck. A grunt came from beside her and she froze still, staring at the wall, pulse getting faster and faster. _What the fuck? _She turned slowly until she was face to face with a bulge in her duvet. _Oh shit, the hell is this? _It was at that moment that she realised where her fingers still rested. Santana pulled them out from between her legs and wiped them on the sheets, before poking the lump on her bed. It lay lifeless, with a faint snoring sound crawling from underneath the gaps in the covers. She poked a bit harder the second time, hoping to actually wake the person up.

"Ouch, what the fuck? What are you doing?" Quinn ripped the covers off from over her face and shoved Santana's shoulder, causing her to fall off the bed. "Santana, what the hell?"

Santana's face fell as she realised that Quinn was naked, along with herself. She pushed herself up and got back onto the bed. "Sorry, but I didn't know who you fucking were, and why the hell are you naked?"

"Santana, please, it's too early for your games. We need to get up anyway, we've got breakfast plans, remember? I don't think the guys would be happy if we ditched them again, do you?" Quinn said, slightly agitated at the rude awakening. She got out of bed and collected the scattered items of clothing from around the room.

Santana was confused as fuck, and still trying to figure out what was going on, or rather, what had gone on last night. All she knew was that her head was aching badly, as was her neck and back. _Surely this couldn't have actually happened, right? _Santana was looking around the room to spot any sort of sign that this was a dream, although the dull ache spreading across her skin was definitely real. "Jesus, Quinn, there was no need to push me off the bed onto my fucking ass. You could have broken it," she groaned, pushing herself up as she rubbed the sore patch, "Especially in my own room."

"I'll have you know, this is my room. You couldn't find your key card, so we came back to mine, remember? Now hurry up, we have just under an hour to meet them downstairs," Quinn threw Santana her dress that she wore that night, along with her bra and one shoe.

"Meet who?" Santana was definitely confused now, and as she pulled on her jogging pants, she spotted the water bottle perched on the side table and let out a huge sigh of relief. Everything made sense now. They definitely did fuck. "Did I really say 'we can make it a two time thing' to you?" Santana asked, slightly shocked at her words, hoping and praying that _that _part of the dream was just that. A dream.

Quinn laughed and shook her head, and pulled out her Yale hoodie from her bag, along with a pair of jeans and the necessities, "Yeah you did. I still can't believe your cockiness sometimes, even after all these years." A grin spread across her face, and it was one that Santana had never seen before, but for some reason, it made her smile as well. "And everyone from last night. Are you high or something?"

Quinn turned towards the bathroom and headed inside, "Help yourself to an outfit in that bag, I don't think you'd really want to walk into a café in an outfit you wore the night before."

"Fuck. Well, that's something," she laughed to herself, as she made her way to the bag in the corner of the room. Santana grabbed the first items she could see, and threw them onto the bed, along with her own body. It was strange to think that her and Quinn had actually just had sex. Not that Santana had never thought about it before, because it crossed her mind a lot, right from the beginning, when they met at cheer try-outs freshman year. The way Quinn oozed with confidence, but was yet still so reserved at the same time. Santana could never quite understand the girl, or why she found her so fascinating, but that was because she was 'straight as they come' back then. As soon as she started accepting herself more, she realised that she had a huge attraction for her, and everything she'd felt became crystal clear. Obviously there were other girls she'd been eyeing up all this time, there was Brittany too, she was just as beautiful, but they shared a different connection to the one she has with Quinn.

Santana stared up at the ceiling for a while, thinking about what had even occurred at the wedding, and how it all started. There was enough time to think about it later, and for now she had to think about getting herself looking good for the day. She looked at the clothes she'd pulled out: A dark grey tank top, a pair of jeans and a pair of- _what the fuck? _Her eyes squinted as she looked at the pair of socks she was holding in her hand. "Quinn, you have got to be kidding me. Fucking socks with giant ass knitted _cats _on them?" She burst out into a fit of hysterics, nearly falling off the bed for the second time, "I know you were basically shacked up with Professor Cripple and the many cats he probably owned, but this is a whole new level of weird. Did he teach you to knit whilst you were riding him?"

The door to the bathroom opened and Quinn stepped out dripping wet, with the towel wrapped around her tightly. "I had those socks _before _I even started dating him, and please don't bring him up again, it pains me to even think that I associated myself with the man, let alone slept with him," she groaned, ripping the woollen socks out of Santana's hands and throwing them on the floor. She looked towards the wall to the side of her and muttered quietly to herself, "And he only had three cats."

Another roar of laughter escaped Santana, as she grabbed the towel that was still in it's packaging on the desk and headed into the shower, leaving the door open behind her. "Every single time," Quinn sighed, taking off her towel and throwing it on the bed. "And now we have 32 minutes to be downstairs!"


	2. Last Friday Night

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and followers and everything else that I got on my first chapter! I appreciate every single one of them more than you know. I've never thought about writing before, but once I have an idea in my head, I just have to go with it, and I'm glad that I did. Also, i'm not sure if I will have time to post another chapter this week, as i'm going away Thursday night to a festival, but I will try my hardest! **

** This chapter is called Last Friday Night by Katy Perry. I hope you enjoy it, and please review and all that goodness! **

The night before was still hazy, and the walk towards the elevator seemed way longer that it should have. It was probably due to the thudding pain in her head, but she could deal with it. It's not like she'd never had them before anyway, considering she spent the majority of her high school years getting drunk with the cheerleaders and jocks, and sometimes the glee club. She walked up to the closed metal doors with Quinn in toe and pressed the button to go down to the lobby. Santana's patience was extremely short, especially when it came to waiting for anything at all, and this elevator was taking its sweet ass time even starting to move. "For the love of all that is fucking wrong with the world!" she hollered, slamming her hand against the doors, "_pinche cabrona, muevete!_"

"I think it's going to be a while until it gets up here, maybe we should just take the stairs," Quinn stared at her phone and sighed quietly to herself, shuffling her feet around, "And apparently no-one made it home until three in the morning, so I guess it's just us two until later today."

Santana pinched the bridge of her nose and rubbed it slighty, "So what do you wanna do now? Cos I'm so hungry, I don't think you could understand. I needs me some bacon." Her stomach growled loudly, and she turned to face Quinn beside her. Her eyes showed a sign of want - and what she wanted, was bacon. "Do you want to grab some breakfast?"

A smile grew on Quinn's face, as she turned towards the stairs adjacent to the lift, "Sure, I know just the place."

Santana followed her down the stairs to the bottom floor. Thankfully the room was only on the fourth floor, her ass was still numb from the fall and still gave her a little discomfort, but nothing she couldn't handle. Their footsteps resonated through the large stairwell, which seemed to flow nicely with the rumbling sounds her stomach seemed to be making. Every second she was away from Quinn that morning, she had been thinking about the awkward moment that would occur throughout the day between them, but nothing seemed to have really changed. Not that it should have, though.

The last thing that Santana would want was to ruin the friendship they had managed to gain back after all the bitching they had out with each other previously. It seemed like their friendship had grown, too. After all, they were planning to go someone just them two, something they hadn't done since Junior year.

"So where exactly are we going? I don't think there's one place in Lima that I don't know. I've been pretty much everywhere," Santana reached into her bag to look for her phone, and noticed that she had three texts and a missed call. _Why would Puckerman need to text me three times? _She pulled it out and opened the her messages:

_I managed to steal a bottle (or twelve) of whiskey from behind the bar and it's got our name written all over it, Lopez. Drink before you head back to the city of hot chicks?_

Santana smiled and scrolled down to the next one:

_'Do yuo think I hav a chance with the crzy hot bbe servung thw baby size chese sticjs?'_

Both of the text were sent before ten o'clock that night and she started laughing at her phone, especially as the last text she received was sent half an hour before she picked up her phone.

_'I definitely banged the girl serving 'baby size cheese sticks'. Got her number, she's a fuckin' ride. Wanna share?''_

She rolled her eyes and started replying, when she was interrupted by Quinn fake coughing a sly 'ahem', "Did you hear a word I said?" Her voice sounded slightly irritated, and Santana turned around to see that Quinn was three steps behind her, looking at her.

"Yeah I did, I was just texting Puck. He had a crisis last night about trying to get up on the waitress from last night. Did you hear my phone go off?"

"Where did I say we were going, Santana?" She looked at her expectantly, but nothing about Quinn in that moment looked remotely angry, so she decided to chance it.

"You said we were going to go to Breadstix, right?"

"Yeah, that's exactly right," Quinn replied sarcastically, letting off a slight grin as she shooked her head and walked straight down the stairs, through the double doors and through into the lobby. Santana was right behind her, trying to catch up. For a morning, Quinn seemed to have way too much energy. Is that what college life does to people? Considering she's lived with Hummel and Berry the majority of the year, she'd never really experienced much of a 'college lifestyle', with her only going to Louisville for approximately two months.

"Okay, I got distracted, I'm _sorry," _It pained her slightly to apologise, but she did feel slightly bad, considering she'd asked Quinn a question and didn't actually pay any attention to the answer. "Where are we going, then?" She put her phone back into her bag without replying to the texts. They were going to be meeting up later anyway, so she could just talk to him then instead.

Quinn walked up to the doorman and thanked him with a smile and walked outside into the cool breeze outside. She turned her head towards Santana without stopping, "Like I said, you'll see." As Santana walked towards the guy standing guard at the doors, she looked at him to smile, but noticed him staring at Quinn's ass as she walked out. She settled for a snarky smile, "Why are all men the same? Jesus, pick your fucking jaw up, you sleaze."

Quinn was waiting for her outside the door, looking slightly confused, "What was that all about?"

"The creep at the door was practically drooling on the floor, gawking at your ass. I just set him straight," her eyes averted back to the guy, who had found a nice interesting spot to look at on the ceiling.

"Santana, you know I can handle myself," She looked at her and set off down the road, with Santana right beside her, "But thank you. He did seem odd the first time I met him."

"I know you can, but I just hadn't been a bitch to someone for a whole 12 hours. I needed to get it out of my system," she smirked, grabbing Quinn's wrist and dragging her down the street.

They walked three blocks down before they turned off into a side alley, where a little vintage diner was situated, barely visible to any normal passer-by. It was quite a quirky, rundown place; it looked like it had been here for over 60 years, and had never been redecorated. Surprisingly it was extremely clean, though. They stepped inside and were instantly greeted by a young woman dressed extremely casually, which was strange to Santana, as she expected an old lady with long grey, uncut hair considering the setting of the place.

"Hi, my name is Alice and I'll be your waitress this morning. Would you like a booth or a table?" The woman grabbed two menus and held them against her chest, before leading the way towards the seating area.

"Booth, please," Quinn nodded and Alice showed them to the nearest available one, before setting the menus down on the table. They both thanked her as she walked away, and simultaneously picked up the books in front of them, and started skimming the pages for a few seconds.

"I know what I need on a hangover day. What about you, Q?" Santana placed the menu down and attempted to flag down Alice, though her back was to the girls.

Quinn was still looking intently at the menu, "I think I'm going to have to have the oatmeal with the blueberries."

"Are you serious? To cure a hangover you need to eat the greasiest shit you can, and you want _oatmeal? _No, Quinn. Just no." She folded her menu so only the unhealthy part was visible and slid it towards the girl in front of her.

"I never thought I'd see the day when Santana actually wanted to help cure a hangover. You were only ever interested in causing the hangover," Quinn picked up the menu and scanned it briefly, "Fine, I'll have whatever you're having."

Santana raised her eyebrows and cocked her head, "I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Either way, not once have you ever complained about the free alcohol you'd been sipping the entire night, courtesy of me." Her eyes met with Alice's and she nodded her head, signalling that they were ready to order. She waited for the waitress to come over before ordering them both the greasiest bacon breakfast dish they served, along with a strong coffee and a cosmopolitan. Alice walked away to collect their drinks, and they both thanked her.

"You can't be serious, Santana. It's not even midday, and you're drinking again?" Quinn looked at her with a puzzled look on her face, like she was expecting her to be joking, before she lowered her eye contact and shook her head, "But I guess this is you."

"Why the hell not? Haven't you ever heard that the best way to get rid of a hangover is greasy food, and another alcoholic drink? Hair of the dog and all that bull," she grinned, taking her drink from the waitress and sipping it slowly.

Quinn politely nodded towards at the waitress with a smile before she walked away, "True, but I think then having to go through a second hangover would be a lot worse." She took a mouthful of her black coffee and placed her mug down onto the table. "How did you sleep last night? You were moving around quite a bit."

Santana choked a bit on her cocktail and covered her mouth, careful not to spit it out everywhere. One of the first things she remembers were her fingers being inside of herself due to her most welcomed dream. "Yeah, well, I had a dream we banged, and I woke up this morning to the realisation that we did. Not that I forgot, but you know when you're in that dream stage and just, assume it was just that. A dream, you know?" She glanced round to see that Alice was walking over with their food and cleared space in front of her, "So I basically just re-enacted everything in my dream, which apparently made me unsettled. I couldn't imagine why though."

Quinn knew exactly what she meant, choosing to ignore the playful sarcastic last sentence, because she was smiling back at her, "Strange, I had the same dream too. It's weird to think about. That we actually did it, you know? But it was definitely just a 'two time thing', as you put it. I had fun, but I don't think I could ever have a relationship with a woman, or experiment with another one. As far as it goes, I'm straight." Santana nodded and they both picked up their cutlery and started digging into the food on the table.

They both moaned out at the taste of their first mouthful, "I'm glad I copied your order. You have great taste in food, I'll give you that."

Santana was too concerned about filling the gaps in her stomach with the giant plate of bacon, eggs, fried toast, potato tots and sausages, and didn't even hear Quinn speaking, "Fuck, this is just what I needed. I bet Lady Hummel and the rest are kicking their selves right now. But no, I agree. This was just a hook up, and nothing else, and I'm more than happy with that. I'm blaming the wedding entirely, too much free alcohol and shit."

Just as she said it, the door to the diner opened, and they both turned their heads round to see Mr Schue and Miss Pillsbury walk through the door and make sudden eye contact with them. _Shit. Do these guys have perfect timing or what? _They started waving and slowly walked over towards them. Why would a newly married couple be coming to a diner first thing in the morning to celebrate their marriage? Suddenly before she even realised, they were stood at their table. "Hey there, girls!" Mr Schuester practically wet himself with enthusiasm and put out his hand, "How did you guys know about this place?"

Santana painfully smiled at him, before Quinn spoke up. "Mr Schue, Miss Pillsbury. Or shall I say, Mrs _Schue?," _She laughed softly and shook his hand before sweetly smiling at Mrs Pillsbury, "I used to come here all the time when I needed to get away, and it was just around the corner from the hotel, so I brought Santana along with me."

"Speaking of being here, why the hell are you guys here? It's the morning after your freaking wedding, shouldn't you be going to some pristine restaurant for early morning breakfast?" Santana looked at them confused, trying to figure out who's idea it was for them two to come here. Considering Mrs 'Schue's' complete germ phobia, it was pretty odd for them to be here.

Mrs Pillsbury piped up and looked between Quinn and Santana, "Well, this place knows about my OCD, and accepts it, considering the owner goes to my regular group sessions, so we call a day ahead and give them a time that we will be here. They always have a table cleaned thoroughly for me, and they serve up some wonderful pancakes. Right, Will?"

"Right! And, just so you know, we still have the same last names. Long story." Mr Schue smiled, "We better take a seat, but thank you girls for coming yesterday, it meant a lot for the entire glee club to turn up. I'll see you later on for pizza at our place?" Knowing how excited he was about being married and being 'in love' was soul destroying. Love only ends in heartbreak anyway, but strangely Santana was happy for him. The guy had been through so much with his ex wife, Bitchzilla, and he deserved someone to make him happy. It was still fresh in her head that Sam and Brittany were together, so her bitterness was definitely coming through, but she knew she couldn't dwell on that relationship forever. It wasn't healthy, and it sure as hell took up too much of Santana's free time, so right there and then, she promised herself that she would stop wallowing in self pity, and move on with her life.

"Sure, Mr Schue, we'll see you guys later on tonight. Better get the tequila shots ready, because we're celebrating in style tonight," She turned to the newlyweds and winked at them whilst shovelling in another mouthful of her breakfast. With that, Mr Schue and Mrs Pillsbury walked over to their table and took a seat. Santana watched as Mrs Pillsbury took out her hand sanitizer and cleaned her hands thoroughly before touching the cutlery. _He has so much patience._


	3. Don't Stop Believing

**A/N: Hi guys! So I will be leaving tomorrow night to go to a festival, and I won't be back until Monday night, which means I won't be able to write anything whilst i'm away, so the update for chapter 4 will be a bit of a longer wait. In the meantime, any updates to anything will be posted on my tumblr page ( .com), and I will be happy to answer any questions at all!**

**This chapter is called Don't Stop Believing, and if you need to know who sang this, you shouldn't be reading :P I hope you enjoy! And please review, I love hearing your comments on how I can improve my writing! Thanks! Lahni**

"Ugh, do we _have _to meet with Berry and Frankenteen before we get our pizza on? I'm all for meeting the 'crew', but I'd prefer to not be in small confined spaces with him. He will most likely suck in all the air in the room, and leave us dying in the corner," she sighed heavily, rubbing her temples, "And Berry will probably break out into a huge confessional outburst and get all emotional. I get enough of that back in New York. Besides, I thought she was with Brody? Wow, has Berry finally turned into a slut? Is she hooking up with both? I never thought I'd see the day where I would openly say I was proud of you."

They were back in Quinn's hotel room after their incredibly amazing breakfast, and Rachel had text them both saying that she 'wished to meet them prior to their 'family gathering'' later on that night, along with Finn. There was nothing that Santana wanted less. Having to listen to his dull droning voice would be torturous and very unwelcome, but she knew that when Berry was adamant about something, she had no choice.

"Santana, you do realise that I am on the phone, don't you? And that I _can _hear everything you're saying." She forgot that Quinn was on the phone to Rachel for a brief moment, but the girl was used to hearing Santana's snide comments about people, although this time she sounded more annoyed than usual. Something was definitely up.

"Of course I do, I was just expressing my disproval of Finn out loud," Santana was too busy trying to find her key card for her own hotel room to even concentrate on what Rachel's reply was, and she was becoming increasingly frustrated. She had searched high and low for it and she still couldn't find it. "Quinn, are you sure you haven't seen my room key? I must have had it somewhere here."

Quinn turned to look at her and frowned slightly, "I completely forgot we're not sharing a room. Have you tried double-checking your bag now that you're sober?"

She pushed herself off of the floor and sauntered over to the armchair by the front door, opened her bag and began rooting through the various amount of items inside, some of which were stolen goods from the hotel, such as shampoo, toothpaste, mini bottles of vodka and rum. There was way too much stuff inside there, and she was on the verge of giving up when she spotted it sticking out from the corner of the pocket inside. Her eyebrow raised slightly, "Damn, I could have sworn I searched this fucking bag all the way through last night. I'm off to go freshen up for the second time today, I'll meet you in the lobby later?"

"Sure, that sounds good. You better not be late, Santana. You have an hour."

"When am I ever late? It's like you guys don't trust me to do anything right, I swear to God."

An hour and a half later Santana was stepping out of the lift, dressed in a tight black top and jeans, with some killer black heels that she'd packed for a special occasion, besides the wedding. She knew that there'd be a hang out with everyone, and she needed to make a good impression. Her original idea was to try and show Brittany what she was missing whilst she was with Sam, but her run in with Mr Schuester and his now wife, Mrs Pillsbury, was the kind of wakeup call she needed. She had to move on with her life if she wanted to get anywhere in it.

Santana was crazy excited to see everyone again; although she spent her entire high school life ripping them all a new one, she loved all of them individually, even if they did piss her off every second that they were together. They were her second family. People she could go to if she needed help, someone to talk to, or even a place to crash when she got too drunk to walk home.

"Well it's nice of you to finally show up. It wasn't like we were waiting for you or anything," Rachel stood up from the couch and sighed heavily, looking at the clock.

"Cut the shitty act of yours, Rachel. It takes time to look this hot. Not that you'd know anything about that," she rolled her eyes and walked towards Finn, looking him up and down before turning back round to Rachel, "Actually, I take that back. The amount of time you spend in the morning warming up your throat for a good session of su-"

"Santana, that is a completely inappropriate thing to say, and I wish sometimes that you would keep your nose out of things. Especially when they don't concern _you _or welcome your opinions," Rachel was clearly in no mood to be messed with tonight. It came out much shakier than Santana would have ever anticipated, and straight away she knew she had hit a sensitive spot. Since Rachel and Kurt took her in when she turned up at their New York apartment, she had learnt when and when not to push Rachel's buttons, and from the sound of her voice, she'd taken enough of a beating today.

"I'm sorry to break up your domestic, but don't we have somewhere to be?" Quinn's voice was quiet, but everyone heard her. Santana cleared her throat and nodded, following suit to Quinn and the rest. It was going to be a long night and that was for sure.

* * *

They walked outside into the cool breeze of the night sky and Finn hollered a cab for the four of them. It didn't take long for one to stop outside and let them jump in, but it was long enough for Santana to start becoming nervous for what was in store that night. She played out different scenarios in her head of how things would turn out, how she would react to them, and how others would react to her being there again, in a confined space with Brittany. Everybody knew she was still hurting over it, and she knew that if it got down to it, she would have to leave early. Complain of a stomach cramp or a headache, something that would get her out of the house immediately. "Santana?"

Her head whipped around to the window beside her and she stared directly at Finn, still in a daze, "What?"

"Um, Santana, we've been here for about three minutes now…. Are you coming in?" Finn was standing outside, hands in pockets, looking extremely nervous. "I've already paid, and we thought you had followed us to the door."

"Yeah, no, I was just talking to the cab driver. I'm coming now," she faced the driver, and unbuckled her seatbelt, "I hope things get better for your family."

"What? We weren't even-"

Santana shot him a dirty look, "I said, I hope your family issues get dealt with." She climbed out of the car, slammed the door behind her and walked towards the new Schuester-Pillsbury home. Her heart was beating faster with every step that she took, and as she climbed the stairs, she saw Puck sat on the porch, drinking a bottle of whiskey.

"What's up, Puckerman? Too much for you in there?" A smile grew on her face as she took a seat next to him, snatching the bottle out of his hands. She felt her pulse slow down, and she could breathe again.

"Have you been in there? I got a headache from the strong stench of bleach and disinfectant. Had to come outside for some fresh air," Puck took a toke on his cigarette and leaned back on the bench, staring at the sky as he blew out the smoke slowly.

"Fresh air my fucking ass," she laughed, taking a mouthful of the drink, "Sorry I didn't reply to your texts, I was out for lunch with Quinn, and then we got back and Rachel called and before I knew it, I was here. |

"You don't need to apologise, babe. I was having my own fuckin' day. Literally." His hands reached up to the back of his head as he stretched, cricking his back, "This girl was a ride and a half, San, you should have seen it."

Santana choked, and managed to spit some out of her mouth, causing it to go everywhere, "Jesus, Puck, you could have waited 'til I finished my drink. I had a mouthful in there!"

He burst out laughing, and threw his cigarette onto the lawn, "Same thing she said to me last night."

"You're disgusting, you know that?" She nudged his shoulder playfully before standing up, looking at him expectantly. "Are you coming?"

Puck stood up and walked towards the door with her, "Now let's face this party together. I feel like I'm going back into the choir room, you know?"

"Trust me. I know."

They walked into the house together, into the lounge where everyone was sat, and she felt all eyes turn on them. This is the last thing she wanted to happen.

"Santana! It's so nice of you to join us. Rachel said you were still deciding on whether to come in," Mr Schuester stood up and walked towards her with his arms out, "I'm glad you made it."

Her eyes widened as she looked at him drawing closer and closer towards her, and she instantly closed her eyes as she felt his arm snake over her shoulders. "Now you're all here, I wanted to say something. If you could just take a seat guys, this won't take long."

Santana brushed him off of her and took a seat next to Quinn, who happened to be sat next to Brittany, of all people. It was the only seat that was free, after Puck took his place next to Mike and Jake, and she knew that if she had stayed standing, people would start asking questions. _Tonight is going to suck, so hard._

"I just wanted to thank everybody for attending yesterday. It meant a lot to me and Mrs Pillsbury that some of you had flown in just for the occasion, and we felt that it was only right for us to get you a gift each, as a sign of our appreciation towards everybody. If you could open them when everybody has received theirs, that would be great." He reached for a black bag next to the sofa, and started handing out presents to everybody individually. Santana received hers third, and had to wait impatiently for everybody else to get theirs. She ran her fingers over the package, and it felt like there was a couple of picture frames in there. _Strange._

"Me and Will struggled to find all of these, but with help from a few classmates and people outside of Glee Club, we were able to pull it off just in time. You can open them now," Emma was clapping excitedly, waiting to see their faces as they opened them.

Santana teared open her present with care, careful not to destroy anything that may be inside, and smiled to herself. _I knew they were pictures. _She pulled off the wrapping paper to a gold pattered picture frame and she felt her heart sink. It was a picture of everybody in the choir room, posing for the camera in their most natural way. There was none of the new members in the photo, but she guessed from their faces that they had got one of their group, too. Tears were starting to form in her eyes, coating them and making her sight blurry. She wiped her eyes and looked closer at the picture, to see her, Brittany and Quinn huddled together on the right hand side, all holding each other's hands with grins plastered over their faces. A grin also grew on her face as she looked at everyone's poses; Artie freaking out as Puck tipped his wheelchair back slightly, Sam with his mouth open, probably trying to do a lame impression of George Bush, or someone just as bad. Then there was Mike and Tina hugging on the other side of the photo, with Finn and Rachel kissing in the middle of theirs. Kurt, Mercedes and Sugar were doing their best Charlie's angel's impressions at the front of the picture, which brought a huge smile to her face. Even Brad the piano guy was in the picture with Mr Schuester, doing what appeared to be the moonwalk, but clearly they were both failing. Her hand came up to wipe more tears away and she looked around the room, to see everybody else doing the same, including the two adults in the room.

"It's funny. When you go through life, you think of all the bad things that happen to you, and you walk with those memories for the rest of your life. Sometimes, you just need to be reminded of the things that made you the happiest. If look at the pictures, everything you had once forgotten could come back to you straight away. The good memories," Mr Schuester's voice was breaking with every word he said, and Santana couldn't help but cry and giggle to herself at the same time, "But I wanted to remind you that wherever you are in the world, whatever you are doing, whether you're feeling alone, scared or anything, you will always have each other. You guys are family, even if you are not blood related. You looked after each other through some of the toughest times the last couple of years, and I wanted you to have at least two memories of when I first thought you were the happiest you had ever been."

All of a sudden, everybody burst out in floods of tears, including the guys, and even Emma was crying on Will's shoulder. It was like someone had just walked into the room and announced that everyone was going to die within a minute. Santana felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned round to see Quinn smiling at her, holding a tissue for her. She nodded and took it, dabbing her eyes, making sure that her makeup wasn't ruined. "Well, If I knew we were having a crying party, I wouldn't have made such an effort for my face to look perfect."

"You look really good with or without a perfect face, San," Brittany smiled at her, which caused Santana to sniff and smile back at her.

"Thanks Britt."

"Now, the second picture is also a memory which I'd like you to remember forever. It shows that no matter what you want in life, if you work hard enough and long enough, you will be able to achieve it. I did, and it led me to Will," Emma was rubbing her tears away with a cotton swab, disposing of them in a small sandwich bag she had in her hand.

Santana looked back down at the photos in her hand and switched the pictures round, to see a photo of their winning faces at Nationals. She couldn't face crying again, so she tucked them back into the wrapping paper and stood up, placing hers on the table.

"Thanks Mr Schue, you didn't have to go through all of this just for us," Blaine announced, standing up and walking towards both Mr Schue and Emma with open arms, embracing them in a big hug.

"You really didn't need to do this, we're never going to stop being a family," She turned to see Mercedes getting out of her seat too, along with everybody else, which just left her standing by the table alone. She looked at Quinn who just rolled her eyes at her and gestured for her to come over. Santana didn't move, unsure whether she could handle that sort of openness at this point, but as soon as she felt Quinn's hand grab her arm and lead her over, she knew it was just the sort of thing she needed to enjoy her night. Her arms wrapped around everyone that was in front of her as she leant on Sam's back. His body turned towards her and pulled her into the middle of the group hug. Everybody was saying their 'thank you's' and 'we'll never forget you' and all the other emotional, mushy stuff, and Santana sighed into whoever was hugging her the tightest in the group. She had no idea who it was, but she knew that that person was making her feel the safest she'd felt in a long time.

"Ah, before we get to the 'shot drinking', I just want to make you all aware, that YOU are responsible for your actions tonight, not us," Mrs Pillsbury stated, staring directly at Santana, Quinn and Puck, "But also, we have booked the hotel rooms for one more night, so you can get cabs back there after you have so kindly emptied our alcoholic beverages."

"You're actually... letting us drink at your house?" Artie piped up after being incredibly quiet, "So we can drink as much as we want, and you aren't going to... Stop us?"

"Who cares? The lady said we can drink, so we're gonna drink!" hollered Puck, already picking up the bottle of whisky from behind him.

Santana had one thing on her mind to solve this kind of emotional wound that they had so openly caused her, and it was staring her right in the face.

"Shots, anyone?" She grinned, eyeing up the bottle of tequila Mr Schue had stashed in his alcohol cabinet on the other side of the room.

"Oh, _Jesus, _not again!_"_


	4. Quiet

**A/N: Thanks for being so patient for this update, I've been at a festival all weekend, and I managed to pull all the muscles in my lower legs AND break all the toes on my right foot, so I've been on crutches and finding it hard to get around. Now I'm visiting my mum and finally sat down, I thought I'd write the chapter! Please bare with me. There may also be some... 'adult natures' in this, but I'm sure you're all mature enough for it ;) **

**I also have a tumblr - .com. If you wanna follow, it'll have updates of One Way Or Another and if you have any questions or plot ideas, feel free to shoot me a message on there! Please review and whatnot, would like to hear your feedback! **

**This chapter is called Quiet by Lights. You'll see why.**

It soon turned 2:38am, and the majority of people had crashed and left for the hotel. The only ones still awake were Santana, Puck and Quinn, which wasn't really surprising. Quinn spent a lot of time with her professor since she'd been away, sipping all sorts of alcohol and getting drunk, so she was into drinking a lot more. With Santana and Puck, alcohol was like their second nature. They'd been drinking since they could even remember, and were able to hold out the longest of the group by pure practice. They were walking a couple blocks away from the Schuester house, and were holding each other up as best as they could. The night was a complete success, everybody got along and there was nothing that could have changed the mood in the house, especially as it was the first time everybody could be there. A few of the Glee members couldn't attend the wedding due to commitments within work, and issues with flights and so forth, so to have the gang together again felt just like the old days, which Santana had definitely took for granted.

Things with Santana, Sam and Brittany seemed to be much better after tonight. Santana didn't focus on how happy the two of them were together, or thought about the fact that she was single. She'd come to terms with the idea of being single after wanting Brittany for so long, and then finally having her all to herself. The ideas kind of excited her, and lead her to having all new experiences in life, such as sleeping around and having incredible, mind-blowing sex with hot girls all over the city. It was like a dream to her. Besides, if it wasn't the weird girl creepily smiling at her in the library back in Kentucky, she knew that there would be something that would end their relationship sooner or later, and she was glad it was sooner. As much as it had hurt to break up with the girl, she knew Brittany needed someone there to love and care for her in ways that she was unable to, and that broke Santana. Seeing Sam care for her completely and fully gave Santana the gratification and closure that she needed to be able to move on with her life. Even though she had thought she was done, she was now one hundred percent done. And it felt great.

"Yo, Lopez, are you even conscious right now?" Puck slurred, waving the bottle of whiskey in front of her face, expecting her to drink some. It managed to snap her out the internal conversation she was having with herself, though her eyes went slightly blurry as she tried to focus on the bottle. "Actually, I think she's had enough. Q?"

"You know, I think I will have some more of that, now you mention it," A smile appeared on Quinn's face as she grasped the bottle from his hand and casually glugged a few mouthfuls, giving her best whiskey face afterwards. "Santana, are you okay? You seem distracted."

It only took a couple of steps more for Santana to respond, but it wasn't the response that she had planned to give. Her mouth opened, and no words came out. She tried for the second time, but yet again, nothing. She raised her eyebrows and thought long and hard about what was going on in that moment, "Q, take me home please."

Both Puck and Quinn laughed, as Noah rushed to the other side of Santana to steady her balance, "Where do you think we've been headed for the past half an hour? We're only round the corner."

"I'll get you home safe, Santana. You can trust me," she turned the girl's face round to look at her directly in the eyes, "We can stay in your room tonight. Puck, feel free to either stay in with us, or sleep in my room."

"Do you think I'm going to… Jesus, I'm drunk," he stopped for a breath and stretched out his back, "Do you think I'm going to miss out on sharing a room with the two hottest girls I know?" Smirking at both of them, he winked suggestively.

"Fuck you, Puck, you can have the sofa," Santana tried to punch his side, but ended up punching him a bit further down, just clipping his 'Puckzilla', which was a great success on her part, and made Quinn snort behind her as he nearly toppled face first onto the floor.

"Okay, I know I like it rough, babe, but any other area!" Both the girls turned their heads to look at him in disgust, both having gone there before, and both knowing that it definitely was not worth another round. "Fine, I'll take the couch."

They walked into the hotel lobby and directly into the open doors of the elevator, where they propped themselves against the railings inside until it reached Santana's floor. They stepped out and slouched towards the door as Santana opened her room, and launched herself at the bed. Quinn rolled her eyes and followed her into the room and Puck sauntered over to the couch, dropping his jeans an taking off his shirt, leaving him in just his boxers. He jumped onto the sofa and pulled a blanket that was folded on the table next to him, over his body and muttered something inaudible.

Quinn leant up from the bed, "Pardon?"

"Water."

She sighed, got off of the bed and started walking to the tiny kitchen that was in the hotel room, "Please would have been a good start, Noah. You can get your own. I only have two hands, and Santana needs to sober up too." Quinn grabbed two glasses, filling them with vitamin water from a bottle she found in the fridge, and made her way back to the bed, putting hers on the table next to it. "Santana, sit up, I got you water."

Santana followed her orders and sat up quickly, and felt a lot more sober than she had felt half an hour ago on the walk back to the hotel. "Thanks, Q." Her hand raised and cupped the glass the girl was holding out for her, quickly bringing it to her lips and downing the entire contents within seconds. "Fuck, that taste's good."

"You don't waste any time, do you?" Quinn sipped her glass slowly, sighing at the fresh taste of the water. "Puck, aren't you getting one?" There was a silence in the room, and all that could be heard was a small snoring sound from across the room.

"You won't get much from him, you should know he passes out as soon as he hits a soft surface." Santana laughed and undressed herself under the covers, kicking all items of clothing out from underneath the sheets. She kept her panties on, because she wasn't exactly shy about her breasts, and everyone had seen them before, so tonight would make no difference. Plus she was still quite drunk, so it didn't phase her even more than usual. "Quinny, get your ass into bed."

"Quinny?" She burst out laughing, "Santana, did you really just call me that?"

"Whatever, just get into the goddamn bed," Santana pulled the girl back into the bed and wrapped herself in the covers.

"Fine, fine," Quinn stood up and undressed herself, leaving her shirt and panties on, before lifting up the cover and slipping underneath, pushing herself further into the mattress. Santana was already drifting off before Quinn even got into the bed, and she knew to give the girl her space in the bed, so she scooted slightly away from her and turned to face the wall on her side. Quinn took a deep breath in and settled down into her pillow, and it wasn't long until she herself had fallen asleep.

5:12am rolled around, and Santana was still fast asleep, and so was everyone else. Or so she thought, anyway. She felt someone's lips kissing up her neck, and she stirred, leaning into it. She moaned quietly opened her eyes, to see Quinn on top of her, placing kisses all over her neck and chest. The only thing that crossed her mind at this point, was the fact that Puck was still in the room. "Quinn, what the-"

"Shh, you'll wake him up," she purred into her ear, as she continued her path up her neck and to her mouth. She leant up whilst kissing Quinn and looked towards the sofa to see Puckerman half hanging off the sofa, hand down his boxers with his other arm over his eyes. Santana seemed satisfied that he wouldn't wake up, and she wasn't exactly going to turn down an opportunity to get off, so she grabbed Quinn's neck and pulled her in closer. Their lips crashed together as they battled for dominance, but Quinn was putting up quite a fight. Not that she minded. Santana had just woken up after all, and was still in a slight daydream land, so she let Quinn take control. Her hands roamed the girl above her, sliding underneath the top she was wearing and lightly scraping her nails down her back. The room got very hot, very quickly, and soon Quinn was ripping of her top, leaving her bare chest in front of Santana's face.

"I thought this was a two time thing?" Her eyes stared directly at Quinn's breasts, rubbing her hands up towards them before palming them gently.

Quinn bent down and caught Santana's lips with her own, prolonging it for a few seconds, "Just think of this as the second time. Neither of us are hooking up with anyone currently, are we?"

A smirk appeared on Santana's face, "I guess not. I'll shut the fuck up then." Her hands reached down to Quinn's panties and ripped them off as the girl maneuvered her legs to slide them down. It wasn't long until Quinn was kissing down Santana's chest and stomach, and quiet moans escaped her lips, "Jesus." Feeling this girl touching her skin sent little shoots of electricity through her body, and as she got further down, she just couldn't wait. This was all completely strange for her. Quinn was straight, and she was very much gay. The first night did come as a shock to Santana, the way they had been casually flirting all night, dancing to slow songs and then dragging each other to the bedroom to let Quinn 'experiment'. But was she actually experimenting in the sense that she could be into girls, and just wants to figure it out with Santana's help, or was she just that turned on, that she'd sleep with anyone. Then again, Puck was on the sofa, so it wasn't like she was Quinn's only option.

Either way, Santana wasn't going to let her thought process ruin everything, especially as Quinn was kissing up his inner thighs and around her centre, taking extra care not to give her any satisfaction whatsoever. "Will you just fu-_uuuuh, fuck_!" Quinn's fingers slid straight into Santana's core and curled upwards against her g-spot, her eyes shut tight and her hand reached up to Quinn's head, pushing her further down her body. Her mind went fuzzy, and all she could feel was how Quinn moved inside of her, and how her tongue felt sliding through the wetness between her legs. "Oh _God."_

There was nothing she wanted more at that moment than to feel her stomach tying itself in a knot, on the verge of her release, but Quinn was drawing it out. For now, anyway. Her tongue was gently flicking over Santana's swollen clit, and with every thrust of the girl's fingers, her toes were curling, feeling every inch of her body set ablaze. She opened her eyes and glanced down at Quinn between her legs, who looked incredibly into it. The way her hair was entwined in Santana's fingers, her eyes open as she stared back into Santana's. The intensity in the look was enough to set her off.

"Shit, don't stop. Oh_hh _fuck, im so close," she whispered, trying to mute the moans coming from her mouth. Quinn quickened the pace with her tongue until she drew Santana over the edge, she felt herself tightening around Quinn's fingers as they curled up inside her. "Faster, _fuck!" _A few moans later, and Santana had reached her peak, her hips bucked up wildly as she bit down on her arm that rested over her face.

Her eyes were blurry and her head was spinning as she rode out her orgasm. "Holy… Wow."

Quinn smirked and climbed up the bed, kissing Santana lightly on the lips before throwing herself down on her side of the bed. "Well, that was as fun for me as it was for you." She leant up and looked towards the sofa to double-check that Puck was still asleep, and much to their amazement, he was.

"You know, you would have thought he would have woken up to the slightest sex noise, wouldn't you." Santana mumbled as she wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "And what's happened to Miss Quinn Fabray, the straight girl from Lima?"

"Well, we're both drunk, and I just, you know. Two time thing, and all." She turned to face Santana sheepishly, "Night, Santana."

Santana was puzzled, "You don't want me to, yunno…"

"I'm fine, Santana. We should go to sleep. It's early, and we have planes to catch tomorrow, remember?."

"That's good for me!" She laughed and leant over, kissing Quinn gently on the girl's cheek. "Night, Q."

Tomorrow was going to be a long day, and the plane trip wasn't going to be the worst part of it, she could feel it.


	5. Trouble

**A/N: Hey guys! I'm sorry it's been a while since the last update, i've been going mad with work and our house is basically a war zone at the moment with everything going wrong with it. (The perks of a student house in the UK.) I finally had some time on my two days off to write this chapter, so I hope you guys enjoy it!** **As always, feedback and your ideas for the story are greatly appreciated and welcomed! My tumblr is .com, so if you have any questions, feel free to shoot them at me on there! **

**This chapter is called Trouble, after Taylor Swift's song. I don't know why I name chapters after songs, but I do.**

"Passengers for flight number 4640, should now be boarding the plane." _Great. _Just what Santana needed, to be crammed in a room full of people waiting to funk up the plane with the smell of unwashed bodies, unchanged diapers and cheap, barely cooked meals. She stood up with her hand luggage in one hand, handbag in the other, and began wheeling it behind her to the queue of strangers, all lined up with their passports and boarding passes. Luckily there weren't many people getting on the plane, but the man in front of her clearly had never heard of the word hygiene in his life because there was no way he had taken a shower in the last three months. The smell travelled up her nostrils, and immediately she started gagging silently, turning her face to the side to reach for uninfected air. _Jesus, can someone quarantine this man and give him a full body wash?! _Her only wish in that moment was that he was sat nowhere near her on the plane.

Finally it was her turn to hand over her boarding pass, and she couldn't be any more grateful that the man was at least a couple of feet further away from her. "Can I see your boarding pass and passport, please ma'am?"

The lady standing next to the small counter was smokin' hot, and Santana couldn't keep her eyes off of her outfit. She was wearing a red tight shirt, buttoned just below her cleavage, a short black skirt that showed off her amazing ass perfectly, and she didn't really care about the shoes, because she didn't really care about feet. "Please, call me Santana," she smirked, looking her up and down.

"Okay, _Santana,_" the woman rolled her eyes and smiled, "Can I see your boarding pass and passport, please?"

Her hand reached into her bag and she pulled them out, handing them over to the woman in front of her. "Is there anything else you want to see?" Santana was really pushing her luck here, but this was an opportunity she couldn't exactly pass up on. Flirting with someone who genuinely looks incredibly hot, and works for an air company? _Hello, future cheap flights!_

The woman laughed and shook her head, cocking her eyebrow slightly, "Maybe later." She passed Santana back her passport, "Have a safe flight, and I hope you make a return visit at some point."

Nodding her head and grinning like a mad woman, Santana wheeled her luggage past the doors and round the corners until she reached the airplane doors. There was no way the woman was genuinely interested in her, she looked as straight as anything. Then again, she herself wasn't exactly the picture image of a lesbian, and she definitely didn't look like one in her mind. As she stepped onto the plane, she looked for her seat, which she had pre-booked so she had more leg room, and much to her amusement, the entire row was free. Santana made her way to the seats and put her hand luggage in the compartments overhead, securing it with one of the seatbelts above. She sat down and opened up her bag to grab her phone, when she noticed she had a few texts and a missed call from Rachel. _Shit. _Rachel and Kurt had volunteered to get a cab to the airport to help Santana with her luggage, much to her dismay, as they had gotten the 9am flight back to avoid a full plane. She swiped past the missed call, and opened up her texts. There was one from Rachel, one from her mother and one from Quinn.

_Santana, please remember to call me as soon as you land. Kurt will be picking you up short after arrival, as I have a few things to take care of. Make sure you call, and do not get any other transport home. See you soon! Rachel_

Don't get any other ride back to the house? Well now she has to. Why would it matter that much, anyway? It wasn't like she would get attacked or robbed on the way back to the apartment. After all, she walked back in the early hours of the morning after work and they hadn't cared. She shrugged her shoulders and sent a quick reply of 'okay' back, and opened her mother's text.

_Mija, you left some underwear here the other day. Did you want me to wash them and put them in your draw? Have a safe flight and don't forget it's your father's birthday in 3 weeks. _

A loud sigh escaped her mouth as she furrowed her eyebrows, replying with the words 'yes please', before opening Quinn's message.

_Thanks to you, I have the worst hangover. I could do with another breakfast. It was nice to see you, and thanks for letting me sleep in your room. Talk soon. Q x_

Finally, someone who wasn't acting weird with her and wanted to talk like a normal person, without hidden agendas and bullshit. The last couple of nights she spent in Lima with Quinn were great, and it reminded her of the times where they were actually friends, and could have decent conversations about things that weren't related to leaving for college, and the drama that came with everything. A smile graced her lips, as she popped a chewing gum into her mouth before texting her back.

_Hey Q. It was great seeing you too, I'm definitely feeling the drink still, and it's 4:30pm. I feel like shit, and I had to stand behind some fucking guy who smelt like rotting flesh for about half an hour. I could feel the whiskey coming back to haunt me. Give me a shout when you get back home. S x_

Santana turned her phone off and placed it back into her bag just before they announced the plane was taking off. She peered round the side of her chair to see if anyone was behind her, and leant the chair back so she could take an hour nap on the way back to New York. Thankfully, she couldn't smell the dead carcass from back here, but she felt sorry for anyone who could. Her eyes slowly started to shut as she got comfortable, and she fell into a sleep within minutes. She'd heard the safety procedure so many times that she could recite it in her sleep.

"Excuse me, miss?" A young man not much older than herself was lightly tapping Santana's shoulder, "We've landed, and we're letting off passengers now."

She grunted slightly and opened her eyes, to see the airplane pretty much dead, with the last few people walking through the doors, "Yeah, sorry." Her hand unbuckled the seatbelt and she stood up, reaching for her hand luggage and her bag as she slid out of the row. She made her way towards the exit where the hostess was avidly pointing the way out, even though it was obviously the only way out, because it was the only open door. Nevertheless, Santana smiled at her and made her way down the walkway to find the luggage, which wasn't as far as she remembered it being before. As she arrived, there were barely any people left in the room. They had all received their suitcases and left by the time the cabin crew had been able to wake her up. She stood at the luggage escalator and turned her phone on so she could text Rachel or Kurt, or whoever it was she needed to call. Just as she was searching through her contacts, she could feel the presence of someone beside her. Her eyes shot to the side to see this woman smiling at her, and Santana could feel her face forming one as well. "Can I help you?"

The man standing behind her ran his hand over his hair and neatened his shirt and blazer out. "I was wondering whether you fell from the sky, because you're out of this world."

Santana burst out laughing and quickly covered her mouth, trying not to hurt the guy's feelings _too _much. She didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of the airport; she was hungover and way too tired for men trying to proposition her, and especially men with greasy, gelled hair with the dress sense of a three year old thrown into a room with a mass of clothes, and asked to pick out the smartest outfit they have. Though, if she had to tell it to him straight, she would. "I heard your dad was a bank robber. It must be true, because he put diamonds in your eyes." He looked really smug and pleased with himself, as he leant against the railing around the escalator.

Santana sighed and put her phone back in her bag. "Okay, look. I'm really tired, and right now, I don't need you trying to come on to me, because for one, it's never going to work. I'm gay. Number two, even if I wasn't gay, you wouldn't be my type because you look like one of those asshole guys who tell you they love you to try and get into a girl's panties, and then ditch them when their wife comes home." His face dropped, and he looked like a deer caught in headlights. "Also, speaking of home, haven't you got one to run along to?"

The man scoffed and scowled at her, muttering something under his breath as he walked away, which got the attention of another woman a couple of people away, who by the looks of things, couldn't wait to join in.

"Excuse me, I suggest you watch your fucking mouth. 'Fucking dykes' aren't all the same, so I wouldn't be walking around saying that, especially loud enough for a lesbian to hear. Do you understand?" She had walked over to him, and stared directly into his eyes. There was nothing Santana liked more, than a woman who would stand up for herself in public, regardless of what the situation was, and Santana was finding this extremely attractive. She stood staring at this girl as she unleashed the beast on him, not even listening to the rest of her rant, because all she focused on was how passionate she was about her lecture. Before she knew it, he was practically sprinting away crying into his gel-covered hands. _Jesus, she's good. _

As the guy grabbed his suitcase, and headed for the door, Santana started clapping slowly, shaking her head slightly with the signature smug look on her face. "Wow, I haven't seen a performance like that since I last went to see a show at Nyada. Impressive."

The girl jokingly curtsied and bowed, putting on an overly happy face, "Well, thank you. I do like an audience from time to time. Hey, isn't that your suitcase? Because we're the only two people left in this room without theirs, and it certainly isn't mine."

Santana grinned, and turned towards the luggage and grabbed her giant suitcase from off of the escalator, practically dropping it on the floor. "Yeah, and I'm assuming this one is yours?" She said, pointing at the next one through the hatch. It was quite a large hikers rucksack, which looked pretty much empty.

She reached out to grab the woman's bag for her, passing it to her politely. "I'm Santana, by the way."

"I'm Charlie. Charlotte's my real name, but I hate it," she smiled, grabbing the bag off of Santana and putting it on her back. "So you live in New York, then?"

"Yeah, I've moved in with a couple friends from high school who are going to Nyada, and they had a spare room, so I thought fuck it, why not quit my old life and start new here?" She reached for her suitcase but Charlie's hand got their first, "And I take it my new life consists of a butler doing everything for me?" Santana watched as the girl started wheeling her suitcase towards the door, and stood there amused for a couple seconds, before following her out the room.

"Well I was being polite, but if you'd like to carry it yourself you can," Her eyebrow raised slightly at Santana behind her, testing to see if she actually cared that someone was doing something nice for her.

"No, no. Feel free to," She reached for her hair and brushed it away from her face, "I don't think I'm in any fit state to do anything right now."

Charlie giggled, "I could tell that by the way you basically threw your case to the floor. I don't mind wheeling it to your car, it's not like it's out of the way or anything. Rough night, was it?"

For some reason Santana was intrigued by this girl. She was already offering to do things for her, she'd stood up for herself, which is something Santana finds attractive in a girl sometimes, and she was extremely hot. It was like she'd walk out into the car park, and there'd be Ashton Kutcher there to smack her in the face with a Punk'd sticker or something. People don't just _offer _to do things for her. Ever. If they did, it was because Santana would refuse to move until they had offered. So really it was out of fear, more than anything else. "You could say that, yeah. And I don't have a car here, I was supposed to call my flat mate to pick me up. Which reminds me…" She reached into her bag to call Kurt or Rachel, whoever picked up their phone.

"Well, I could give you a lift back to your apartment if you like? I've not exactly got a busy schedule or anything for tonight." They walked towards the doors and out into the car park until it dawned on Santana what the girl had offered her. She'd been too busy checking her texts on her phone to listen properly.

"Well, I was told to call them for some unknown reason, and I never exactly do as they say, so sure, if you wouldn't mind."  
"I wouldn't have offered if I did," Charlie smiled at her, which made Santana's stomach go slightly funny. _What the hell is it with this girl?! _

A few minutes later they had reached her car, and were loading it with their luggage. The car was a nice Land Rover LRX in white, and was much nicer than a cab that Kurt would arrive in. Also a lot more comfortable, by the looks of it. "Well if you're not busy, maybe we could grab a drink or something? My treat, considering you've basically been my savior this evening tonight."

Charlie had finished packing the last of their bags into the car, as she turned and grinned at Santana, "Well I can't turn down a drink now, can I?"

_Today has been my lucky day, indeed._


	6. Dirty Little Secret

**A/N: Hey guys! It's been forever since I last updated, but my life has been way more hectic than I thought it would be this past couple of weeks, hence the realllllll slow updates. I've just started back up at university, my work is giving me overtime and a half and to top it off, my arthritis has been pretty shitty, so I find it hard to type :( Life. ANYWAY, someone made a very good point of me not mentioning what Charlie looks like, and in fairness, it did completely slip my mind! But rest assure, you'll all find out soon enough.**

**Anyway, this chapter is called Dirty Little Secret, from The All American Rejects. You shall find out why!**

**(I'm also starting to write the next chapter tonight, cos I have a good idea of what's going to happen in this chapter.) As always, my tumblr is .com if you have any questions! Thankyou guys for all your reviews and comments!)**

**Three days later**

"So, are you going to tell us how it went? Or are you going to just sit there and watch this _fascinating _documentary on pandas in silence?" Kurt threw himself on the couch next to Santana, who two hours ago had returned back to the apartment after her job interview at a local diner a couple blocks away.

"It went great," She said, slightly disinterested in the conversation, "I got the job, and I start tomorrow morning."

"Well you could sound happier, Santana! You've actually got a job to pay your way in life, think of the people who don't have them, and have no money whatsoever!"

The sound of the pots and pans Rachel was throwing into the sink made her point sound even more serious, and Santana muted the TV to turn to face her. "You realize that I'm actually happy I have this job, right? Jesus, mom, I didn't realize I still lived with you."

"This is you happy? Wow, I couldn't even tell the difference," Kurt rolled his eyes and grabbed the remote from her hand, unmuting the television in the process.

A sigh came from Rachel's mouth, "I'm not trying to mother you, Santana. Are you still angry at us for organizing a get together of friends last night and not asking if you wanted to join?"

She got up and walked past Rachel, headed directly towards the fridge. She opened the door and grabbed a beer from the collection she had made on her shelf, "I wasn't mad, I just had a bad day. I told you what that girl was like the morning after she stayed. She fucking freaked me out, crazy bitch." Santana opened the bottle and brought it to her lips, taking a quick swig, "One of you could have answered my S.O.S text that I had sent you."

"If you had come home like I had told you to before you even got on the plane, you wouldn't have had that problem, would you?" Rachel sang at her, placing the wet plate on the drying rack next to the sink.

"She does have a point, you know. We had organized a movie night with popcorn and everything."

"Okay, that's true. But if, say, a hot guy came up to one of you, and was being insanely nice to you, carrying your bags, offered to drive you home, and when you go out, pay for all your drinks, tell me you wouldn't bring him back to the apartment and jump him like a hyena!" Rachel and Kurt both looked at each other and shrugged, agreeing with her. "It was not my fault that she now assumes we're together, and won't stop texting and calling." She took another mouthful of the beer, before swishing it in her mouth and swallowing.

That night had been the strangest experience she had to date. The woman was a psychopath, and she wouldn't leave Santana alone. They spent all night drinking at the bar, getting to know one another, and getting quite friendly, before going back to the apartment for a night of incredibly weird sex. It wasn't that she was unattractive, because she wasn't. Charlie was a fucking goddess. It was the fact that she wanted to try some unordinary one-night stand things with Santana, which would have been more acceptable if they were in a relationship for a good while, but the morning was just way too much for her to handle.

_"I want you to make love to me Santana."_

_"Excuse me?" She lifted her head to look up at the woman staring down at her._

_"Make love to me. I want you to light candles. I want you to massage me with oils, and I want you to tell me how in love with me you are." Charlie purred, as she stroked Santana's face. She wasn't joking, and Santana could tell by the way she looked into her eyes, that this was completely serious._

_"I… That's not going to happen. I'm not going to fake being in love with you… That's kind of weird." She got up and walked to the other side of her 'bedroom', "Like, are you serious?" It was hard for Santana to walk away from her, because she was incredibly beautiful. _

_There was an awkward silence for a while, the girls staring at each other and around the room. Santana didn't know what to do or say. She didn't want to get back into bed with this girl, but she felt like she should get in because she was hot. Her mind was exploding. "So are we like, together now?"_

_"You should, erm," Santana cocked her head slightly and looked at this girl who was naked in her bed, and completely uncovered, touching herself, "I think you should leave, and like, not come back…"_

"Santana?"

She snapped straight out of her daydream and nearly tripped over stool she was standing next to, grabbing the nearest surface to steady herself out. "Yeah?"

"Are you back now?" Kurt joked, holding up her phone, "I said your phone just went off. Do you want me to read it?"

"If it's from psychotic Sally, please tell her to politely fuck off," She sighed, shaking her head as Rachel started laughing next to her, "It's not funny, Rachel!"

"Actually, it is pretty entertaining to see you having these sorts of issues with a girl. I thought you would be the only one to not have this, considering your luck with relationships and hook-ups." Rachel dipped the glass into the water, and started scrubbing at it with a sponge, "I wish I had your luck."  
"Careful what you wish for, Berry. Finn or Brody, whoever you're seeing, could turn out to be a complete psycho at some point. Especially plastic Ken, he looks a bit dodgy." She reached out to the side and grabbed a dishtowel and started to dry the washing. "Who text?"

"It was Quinn, she tried to Skype you just now but you never picked up, which makes sense, considering you're in here," he smiled, "Maybe you should call her back."

He was acting odd, and she didn't know why. Kurt was never usually the one to act this way, usually it was Santana who knew everything. "Why are you being weird?"

"I'm not, I'm just saying that she called, so obviously it was important, so you should call her back," his eyes squinted as he looked at her, amused with himself.

She turned to face Rachel, who just shrugged at her, clearly knowing nothing about what was going on, before approaching Kurt and snatching the phone out of his hands. She walked away into her room backwards, staring at Kurt in the process. As soon as she made it behind her curtain, she closed it and leapt onto her bed, grabbing her laptop off of the side and placing it on her lap. Her laptop started ringing, and a picture of Quinn came up on her screen as she called, which made Santana smile. She hadn't spoken to her since the morning of the crazy, and she knew the first thing she'd be asked, was how her girlfriend was. Santana rolled her eyes, as she pressed the 'accept' button.

"I can't believe you haven't updated me on the wedding plans yet, Santana. I would have thought I'd have my invitation through the post two days ago!"

"You're fucking hilarious, Quinn. Really, you should do stand-up," she glared at her laptop screen, where he could see the blonde in hysterics, practically crying with laughter.

"I'm sorry, I just still can't get over the fact that you got asked if you were her girlfriend after less than 24 hours of knowing her. Have you seen her since?"  
"Jesus, no! You text me the same question last night, do you think I would have seen her since that awkward wank-fueled moment?" A wave of disgust hit her stomach, and she felt like she was about to throw up, "Can we change the subject now?"

Quinn was still giggling to herself, "_Wanky_,"she air quoted, mocking Santana's obsession with the word, "Okay, okay. How did the interview go?"

"It was really good, actually. The woman who interviewed me clearly wanted a piece of me, but then again, who wouldn't? Anyway, I start tomorrow for my trial shift, and then I work again in two days." Truth is, Santana was actually excited to start work, especially living the beginning of the whole 'New York experience' of working as a diner/café and then breaking into the music and acting scenes. That's what she had wanted to do since McKinley, but her scholarship to Kentucky was something she couldn't turn down at the time, especially since she didn't know what she wanted in life. It was her fallback plan, but before she got the balls to come to New York, in her mind, it was the only option she had.

"When are you working 'til? I mean, how long is your shift? Trials are usually much shorter than your average shift," she asked, slightly too excitedly.

"People would think it's you who's just got the job, Quinn," she laughed, "Don't get too excited for me. I'm working one o'clock until five, but a usual shift is either nine to five, or midday to close, which is only eight. How's being back at Yale? I haven't asked yet."

Quinn sighed, "It's actually kind of okay. Classes don't start for another two weeks, but I've got so much work to do before then. It's taking over all my free time, which isn't exactly ideal, though I can't exactly do anything about that."

"It's that asshole professor. He's managed to somehow make your life a living hell now, I can feel it in my Mexican third eye!" a low growl appeared under Santana's obviously pissed off tone, and she didn't know why she got so angry over this guy. It wasn't like he'd cheated on Quinn, or done anything to Santana at all, but something about him annoyed the hell out of her, and has done since the day that she found out about him.

"Santana, he doesn't even work at this college anymore. He moved out of state last week. Someone blabbed to the deans that they had seen him having 'some relations' with a student that wasn't very 'student-teacher' friendly. He handed in his notice and left during break." Quinn looked directly at the camera and smirked, "Why, are you jealous of him or something? Is that why you're so angry?"

_Was _that the reason she'd gotten so angry with Quinn in the choir room? Because she was jealous that she had someone, and Santana didn't?

"Like fuck would I be jealous of him. He's probably had male pattern balding since he was in his twenties," she rolled her eyes. _Wait, was Quinn talking about being jealous of her or being jealous of __**him? **_Santana had never really thought about it like that. _Was _she jealous of him? It would make more sense that way, considering Quinn was the only one in the couple that she was preferable to, due to her clear gender, but it didn't make sense. She'd never seen Quinn like that before. Like more than a friend. Or had she? There were definite times at cheer practice that she would occasionally glance over at her, checking her out, but Santana did that with everyone, it was like her dirty little secret back then, in that dark closet she kept herself in all this time. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you're the one jealous here. Getting angry yourself, over my little psycho friend."

Santana winked at Quinn, turning the tables back on her, and Quinn looked slightly taken aback. Like she wasn't expecting Santana to say it. "I am joking, Quinn. Don't worry, I know your 'two time rule'," she said smugly, "Though if I remember, it definitely rolled into a three time thing."

"Could you be any louder?" She whispered, "Rachel and Kurt might hear you. Anyway, I need to go grab some dinner. I'll speak to you soon, San."

Santana sighed, "Yes, because the last thing I need is for one of them two to find out. Okay, Q, speak to you later." She moved her cursor to the 'end call' button and clicked it, sinking backwards into her pillows.

It wasn't like she'd never thought about hooking up with the girl, either. It had crossed her mind a couple of times, but it was Quinn Fabray, captain of the chastity belts and saving the angels from tears. It was never going to happen. Or so she thought, anyway. It didn't actually just happen in a dream, it happened at the wedding in real life. Again the night after, and Santana liked it each time, more and more.

Her head started to hurt just thinking about everything. She needed to sleep already, and by the time their conversation had come to an end, it was 11:25. She groaned to herself, closed the laptop and turned the lamp off next to her bed. Usually she'd take the time to watch another episode of Catfish or Jersey Shore before she fell asleep, but staying up any longer than she had to tonight, would just lead to overthinking, and a night of shitty sleep. Her eyes closed, and she took a deep breath in, trying to settle comfortably, until someone tore apart her curtains. "So, it was you who gave those hickeys to Quinn then," Kurt said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down suggestively.


	7. Working Nine To Five

**A/N: Hi guys! I feel like all I do is apologise to you, but seriously, my life is mad. I try and write as much as I can in a day, but I usually end up falling asleep because I write when I can, which happens to be anytime past 1am. Anyway, I've finally finished this one, and I had a review last week to get the chapters longer, so I tried to do it a bit with this one. The only downside with longer chapters, is that it'll take me longer to write, but whatever you guys want, really.**

**My tumblr is .com, i'll be answering questions related to the fic, and posting updates about how the next chapter is coming along. You'll most likely get a reply on there than on here, just because i'm on Tumblr about 100% of the time.**

**This one's called Working Nine To Five, as she starts her job and let's face it, she's never worked a day in her life.**

"What the hell? No I didn't. What are you even talking about?" Her heart was racing fast as she sat up in bed, and turned the lamp on.

"Santana, please. You're not the quietest talker, and I know a piece of juicy gossip when I hear it. You and Quinn Fabray did the _unspeakable _act of lesbian sex, and you can't deny it," he leaned against the wall, smirking, "I heard you both flirting with each other. It's clearly obvious that you're into each other."

Her face turned bright red, and she looked at him, subtly pleading with her eyes, "You dare tell Rachel, or anyone for that matter, and I'll rip you limb from limb until you are-"

"Santana. I'm not going to tell anyone. Though, if Rachel were in the room I was just in, she would have heard your entire conversation, just like I did. If you want to keep secrets in this apartment, you need to learn to control your voice," he raised his eyebrow at her. "I thought Quinn was straight, anywho."

She was defeated. The bitch had something on her, and he wouldn't let up until he knew every last detail. Just like the first time Santana and Brittany had webcam sex, and he just 'happened' to walk into the apartment an hour and a bit before they were both due back. "Yeah, well, so did I. She just wanted to experiment, which I guess is normal for most girls. I mean, I'd experimented with Brittany in high school as a 'straight girl', but something about Quinn at the wedding was… different."

"Different how?"

"Kurt, we're not doing this right now," she shook her head and turned the lamp off, "Goodnight."

"RACHEL, CAN YOU-"

The lamp was swiftly turned on again, "Don't you fucking dare. I hate you sometimes, do you know that?"

"Yes, you hate me all the time. The reason I am doing this, is because you don't talk to anyone about anything, and I think you just need to open up sometimes, and whether that's with me or not, I don't care. You keep things to yourself, and that's why you get angry, so can we just talk about how you feel please?" Kurt grew frustrated with every word, and he could see he'd want more details than that by the way his face scrunched up with a sudden serious look on his face, and he wasn't going away anytime soon.

Santana sighed as she stared at him, "Fine. You can sit down on the chair."

Kurt smiled and walked over to the other side of the bed, lifted the comforter and got into the bed, "I think I'd find this more comfortable."

"Well, I won't exactly be comfortable either, so it would have made it a lot fairer," She shuffled over on the bed, distancing herself from him a little.

"You're prolonging the awkwardness, Santana. How was it different with Quinn?"

"It just is, I guess. I don't know what to say to you." She wasn't exactly lying, she had no idea what to say. One minute she's thinking about Brittany, the next she's fine and sleeping with Quinn, then she's no longer thinking of Brittany, but Quinn, and then she's bringing home a random girl she met on a night out, which made her feel better, until she turned out to be a complete psycho. And now she's finding herself jealous of the fact that 'professor asshole' is seeing her more than she is. She didn't know how to explain how she felt, because she just didn't know. "We were nothing more than friends before. She never showed any signs of being interested in me, until she started flirting with me at the wedding. Then each time we've been drunk together, we've hooked up. I'm kind of confused as to what… _that _is, you know?"

She laid down on her side and turned to face him, and he was staring back down at her with his eyebrow raised, "And how do you feel about Brittany? Do you still love her?"

Her face fell against the pillow, face first, "I obviously still love her, but I'm just, you know. Getting over her. She will always be my first love, but she's moved on now, and I can't exactly stay in the same place forever, can I?"

A hand reached onto her shoulder, causing her to look at him, "I feel the same way about Blaine, you know, besides him not moving on. If it helps, I slept with him at the wedding, even after everything that's happened. He still texts me three or four times a day." She smiled at him and shuffled down the bed, resting her head on his leg as his hand started playing with her hair. "You know, this is the first time you've ever really honestly opened up to me. I think I could get used to this."

"Don't get too comfortable, lady face, it's not going to be a regular occurrence. But just out of interest, why did you sleep with Blaine?" Her voice sounded sleepy, and she felt her eyes closing slowly.

He sighed, and continued to play with her hair, "I'm not sure. I guess I was just confused too."

She was nervous, but nervousness was definitely not something Santana would let anyone else see, besides maybe her own mother. In order to get through the day, she needed to ooze confidence and act like she knew what she was doing, even if she didn't. She'd never had a job before, and she'd never had people relying on her to do something for them. The only person she had ever really had that with, was Brittany, and maybe sometimes the Glee club, but the thought of having to deliver something good enough to please someone was frightening. She took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds and let it out slowly, as she walked round the corner towards the diner. Her hand reached up for the door and pushed it open, as she saw the woman who interviewed her waiting patiently at the door for her.

She smiled at Santana, and waved slightly, "There you are! Ten minutes early, someone's eager!" she said joking, "I'll just take you to the back and show you the changing room. I've set up a locker for you with your uniforms in." She spun round and started walking towards the double doors next to the counter, but all Santana noticed was how incredible this woman's figure was. Alex, as she introduced herself in the interview, was a tall brunette, about five foot seven, with piercing green eyes that looked like they were trying to open up your soul. Her face was slightly rounded, and she had very visible cheekbones, but Santana never paid attention to her features before, because she was too focused on getting the job, and now she had it, she let her eyes wander wherever they wanted. Alex was perfectly curvy, not too skinny, which wasn't an issue for her, seeing as she didn't really have a type, and the woman had an amazing ass to go with it.

Santana followed her into the room and they stopped at the locker, "Is this mine here?" She asked, pointing at the open locker.

"Oh no, that one's mine," A girl said from behind her, walking up towards the locker to grab her uniform that was half hanging out, "I'm guessing you're Santana?"

"Santana, this is Dani. She'll be showing you the ropes today, giving you a quick feel of things," Alex smiled politely, "Your locker is just next to hers on the left. I'll leave you to get changed, and I'll see you just before you finish? I'm going to a few meetings today, but you're in good hands with her. Have a great first day!" And with that, Alex waved quickly and jogged out the room.

Santana couldn't quite focus with this extremely attractive woman in front of her, just walking around in her underwear. It was all new territory for her, actually thinking about other women other than Brittany. She'd been so fixated on their relationship that her eyes never really wandered to other women, and for her to now really start noticing other women was completely out of the 'norm' for her. "You can look you know."

Her daydream ended rapidly, and she lifted her head to make eye contact with the girl, "What, sorry?"

"You can look at me whilst I'm changing. It's not weird, we're both girls, you know?" She was grinning at Santana, and it instantly made her calm down.

"Oh, yeah, no, I was just thinking of what my first day will actually turn out, and whether or not I manage to burn down the place within the first 10 minutes," she laughed, as she opened her locker and pulled out her uniform.

Dani stared at her with her eyebrow raised for a split second, before slightly smirking, "You are pretty hot, so it wouldn't surprise me."

_First five minutes and I'm already getting hit on? Why didn't I move here sooner?!_

Santana didn't really know how to take that, because straight girls call each other hot all the time, well, normal straight girls do. _Rachel doesn't count, because nothing about that girl is normal. _She smirked back before shaking her head side to side, happy with the compliment, before taking off her shirt and pulling the red shirt over her head. "So, how long have you been working here for?"

"I've been here for two years, so I guess it's been a while," they both pulled up their skirts and collect their shoes from their lockers, "What's your story?"

Santana laughed nervously, one thing she hated was people prying in on her personal life. It wasn't so bad if it was her doing it to someone else, but vice versa was just nerving in her eyes. "We have plenty of time for that, don't we?" She stood up from the bench and walked out the double doors, "Where do you want me to start?" Suddenly her confidence was back in full swing.

The girl followed after Santana and jogged lightly behind the counter, "Well first, you should go and seat that lady who's coming in. She's a regular, and her favorite booth is the one in the corner to the far right of the shop."

She nodded, and grabbed the menu off the pile on the table, and waltzed over to the lady standing at the door, "Hello, my name's Santana, and I'll be your server this morning. If you'd like to follow me to your table," she smiled sweetly at the elderly woman as she thanked her, and turned on her heels to lead her to the designated booth. It was probably the nicest she'd been to someone without having some sort of nauseating feeling afterwards, or being sarcastic, in a very long time, but the regular reminded her of her abuela, and she felt that she should at least let herself see that some older generations are still accepting of her. Even if they don't know her sexuality. She just missed the bond she had with her, so she felt inclined to treat them with a bit more respect than she usually would.

Santana showed the lady the booth, "Would you like me to get you anything?"

The woman shuffled herself into the corner of the booth, "Could I get an Americano please? An eggs benedict would be nice, too. And please, call me Jean."

"Of course," she smiled as she wrote down the order on the notepad she had pulled out of her waistband, "I'll be right back." Santana made her way towards the counter and tapped Dani on the shoulder, "Task one complete. What do I do now?"

"Okay, take the piece of paper and pass it to one of the chefs through the hatch just there," she pointed at the window in the wall, where an Italian looking man was grinning and waving at her, "Then make the Americano and wait 'til you hear someone from behind there say 'Order up' and ring the bell."

Santana raised her eyebrow and nodded, "I can do that." She ripped the paper off of the notepad and walked towards the overly friendly guy, still grinning widely at her. _Creepy motherfucker._

"Buongiorno, signorina!" He exclaimed as she neared the window, "My name is Roberto, but feel free to call me Rob. You must be the new girl, Santana. It's lovely to meet you." He was a tall, handsome guy, around twenty or so, with black hair slicked back underneath his hat and a little facial stubble. From what she could tell, he was a tiny bit taller than her, and was extremely muscular. Someone who she probably would have considered a couple of years ago, if she got drunk enough for it.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you too, Rob. An eggs benedict for this order please," she told him, before rushing over to the coffee machine to prepare it for the Americano.

After a couple of seconds fiddling with the freshly round coffee beans, she figured out how to fit the attachment back onto the machine. _Fuck, what even is this? _Santana stared at the coffee machine for a while, trying to figure out how to get the water to run from it. They had one at her house, mind, but it was nothing this extreme, with filter attachments and levers and milk warmers, it was just a plain 'press water for water' machine.

"Do you need some help? I probably should have shown you how to use this first," Dani laughed, "Watch carefully. I'll make this one for you, and then you can make the one for the order." Santana nodded, and watched as she slid the filter underneath the machine on the other side, and pressed the button that resembled a bigger cup and saucer. "This one is for Americano, as it just gives out just the right amount of hot water to fill up an Americano mug. For an espresso, though, you'll need to use the one with the smaller cup above it."

Her eyes trailed every movement the girl made, as she watched intently, making sure to mentally note down the process. The last thing she wanted to do was get it wrong and ask for help again. "Okay, I think I have it." Dani moved out of the way, and took her mug with her, giving Santana more space to do her thing. She reached over for the mug and put it underneath the filter she'd previously attached, and pressed the second button to get the water to flow out. She stood back as the Americano fixed itself, and shook her head side-to-side and scrunched up her face, "That's right, yeah?"

"Pretty good!" Dani exclaimed, clapping her hands together, "Okay, so if you pop that on the tray, the food should be ready in a few seconds." Right on cue, the bell rang from behind her, and there was a plate of eggs benedict on the counter under the heat lamps. She turned around and thanked Rob, picking up the plate and took it back to the tray.

Santana grabbed the tray, and ran it over to Jean as quick as she could, without spilling a single drop of coffee, "Here you are, eggs benedict and a regular Americano. Would you like anything else?"

"Thank you so much, I'm fine thanks. You know, you remind me a lot of an old friend I had back in the day. Her name was Trisha, and she was the prettiest girl around for miles. Besides me, of course," she laughed, taking a sip of her coffee, "But she was extremely talented. An incredible singer. She spent her young life working in a diner, just like you, saving and scrimping her money to move to New York. We lived in Tennessee at the time, you see." Santana was intrigued as to where this story was going, and she saw Dani greet the next customer from the corner of her eye, so she stayed put to hear the lady's story a bit longer. "And we spent all summer, planning our move. She put a deposit down on a two bedroom flat, for the both of us. Paid for everything, and got a job singing at a local hotel for a year or two, until she was finally spotted and offered a record deal. She's the reason I'm here today. I hope one day you'll find someone that loves you, and cares about you as much as she loved me. I miss her."

"What happened to her? If you don't mind me asking," Santana slipped into the booth opposite her, and leaned her elbows onto the table.

"Well, she became too famous at the time. Got herself hooked on cocaine and a mixture of other things. She died around thirty-two years ago now, and to this day, I don't know why I didn't stop her, and try to control her habits. We used to sit here when we met up, every Sunday and Wednesday morning, without fail, 10am." The lady's eyes started brimming with tears, but she frowned slightly and started cutting into her eggs benedict. "What I'm trying to say is work for what you want. Don't give up on your dreams, because they are achievable. But from my experience, don't ever deny yourself love when you see it. No matter what gender or race. Once they're gone, there's no getting them back. I was twenty-nine when she died, and I've never forgiven myself for taking the risk with her. Use your heart, and not what is 'right', if you know what I mean."

Santana herself started welling up. She could relate to the story so much, and it brought back a whole heap of emotions that she'd tried so hard to forget, and push to the back of her mind. This lady understood exactly what she was going through. She used her finger to wipe away the tears about to fall, "Wow. I'm glad you shared that with me. Thank you. But I have to get back to work. If you need anything let me know."

Jean smiled up at her, "I will. Thank you, Santana."

She walked away from the table and tried to compose herself as she neared the counter. It was almost relevant to how she feels about Quinn, in a weird way. She finally admitted to herself that she does have feelings for the girl, but she was straight, and nothing else. She just hoped Quinn wouldn't take up narcotics whilst at Yale. A little giggle escaped her lips as she thought about the idea of Quinn _actually_ doing drugs.

"I take it you've spoken to Miss Feather about her story, then," Dani smiled sadly, "It's crazy how not being brave and not going for what you want, can change your entire life."

"Miss Feather?" She asked, "Oh, Jean?"

"She let you call her by her first name? Wow, she must like you. She never lets anyone call her that. Not even Alex."

She was surprised, it seemed like the woman was friendly as hell. A regular who doesn't even let the manager use her first name? "Well yeah, it was… deep, to say the least." She grabbed a tissue from the pile next to her and dabbed her eyes lightly, drying them up. "She's right though. You can't stop going after what you want."

"Exactly! Right, shall we move onto folding cutlery?" Dani grabbed a tray of cutlery and a pile of napkins, and placed them on the counter.

"As in, folding napkins for cutlery? People do that? I thought, like, they came wrapped." Her brows furrowed, looking between the cutlery and napkins.

"Nope! Come on, let's start now before there's a rush."

It had been four hours and fifty since Santana started her five hour shift, and so far, everything about the job was perfect. She got free food on her break, and a drink of her choice, non-alcoholic, for obvious reasons. The customers were friendly, and everything about the environment was perfect. Her new colleagues were very welcoming, and she met a few more of the chefs throughout the day, like Big Pete, the head chef of the diner, who was an extremely big Italian guy who cooked everything to perfection. Then there was Rob who she had met earlier, his son, who had only been working there for a couple of months, but had helped out previously when a member of staff had been unexpectedly ill. Then there was James, who was probably the smartest looking chef she had ever met. He was beautiful, with deep blue eyes, brown hair hair-sprayed to perfection, and the smoothest face ever. Something that she never thought was possible, with Kurt around, but this guy was the definition of 'primped'.

More waitresses and waiters turned up at the restaurant a few hours ago, and they're also incredibly nice. It's like in this building she's stepped into an alternate universe where people are actually not annoying. Whether that was the fact that she was just happy to be doing something other than sit at home and stuff herself with popcorn whilst watching crappy documentaries, or the fact that this place just genuinely hires nice people has yet to be determined. The first girl she met was a short blonde woman called Lacey, who was twenty-one and was flawless in all sense of the word. She was the funny one of the group, always making people laugh and smile, even if the situation was shitty. There was also Markus, who was a muscly African-American guy, dressed in a red shirt, which showed off his abs, and black trousers, which outlined many features of him. She only noticed it because Lacey made a joke about how his trousers had shrunk, and what has been seen, cannot be unseen. He was a really sweet guy, helping Santana with her orders and errands if she forgot what she should be doing.

Santana had only had one issue, where a guy had tried to grope her as she walked away from the table, and rated her a ten out of ten. She was pleased with the rating, because she was completely flawless, but the groping was a bit too far for her. It didn't take much of this guy and his friend practically eyeing her like a piece of steak, for Dani to kick them out of the diner. The group had a zero tolerance policy for any inappropriate behavior, whether it was to the waitresses, waiters, or the kitchen staff, and it made Santana feel more welcomed into the group, even on her first day.

She had just finished taking an order from a small family, and was making the milkshakes for the order; one chocolate, and one Oreo shake, which she had perfected after making at least thirty of them throughout the day. Dani had set up two glasses ready for her to pour them into, and she put the chocolate sauce on the glasses to make a design inside. Santana took them off of the machine and filled the glasses up to the top, picked them up and took them back over to the tray. There was a customer that Dani had taken to speaking to for a few minutes, and that there was someone sat in a booth facing away from her that had only just arrived. She picked up her notepad and pen, and walked over to the booth where a woman was sat, head engrossed in a book, "Hi there. My name's Santana, and I'll be your waitress for this evening. Are you ready to order? Or would you like me to come back?"

"I'll have a hazelnut latte, please," she replied, lifting her head to face her.

Santana froze suddenly. This had to be some sort of joke, there was no way in hell this was a coincidence.

"Quinn?"

"Santana," she grinned up at the girl, "I thought I'd surprise you guys. Well, you and Rachel."

"Wh-what are you doing here? When did you get in?" She was still shocked, and confused as hell. She was the last person Santana had expected to be sat in the diner, "I thought you were swamped with work?"

Quinn was still grinning, "Well, I lied. Kurt and I were skyping this morning, and he said that if I was bored, to come to New York to spend a couple of days with you guys. Is that okay?"

Her eyebrows raised and she cocked her head slightly, "No. I mean, yeah, it's okay. It's just a shock that you'd be here, at my work, just as I'm about to finish my shift." Santana's eyes scanned the booth, to see the girl's suitcase and belongings still with her, "Have you not dropped your things off at the apartment?"

"No, I came here straight from the station. I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone and stop off to pick you up from work, and then you can help me carry my stuff to your apartment. I've spoken to Dani already, and she said that she's fine for you to leave, so go grab your stuff and we'll head back and order takeout."

Santana looked over to Dani, who smiled and nodded at her, signaling her to get off of work five minutes early, as Markus had agreed to pick up her last couple of tables on top of his. She mouthed 'thank you' to her, and turned back to Quinn, "Give be a minute or two, and I'll be right with you."


End file.
